PJM has published the 2025 edition of its Regional Transmission Expansion Plan Report, which highlights the transmission projects approved by the PJM Board of Managers for the 2025 RTEP as well as PJM’s ongoing planning efforts.
PJM’s Regional Transmission Expansion Plan (RTEP) process identifies transmission system additions and improvements needed for reliable grid operations now and in the future for the 67 million people in the PJM footprint.
Baseline and Network Upgrades
The report (PDF) discusses how PJM and its stakeholders continued to work throughout 2025 to identify challenges and craft solutions toward maintaining a reliable grid:
- PJM’s RTEP process identified 122 new baseline projects to maintain fundamental grid reliability in the face of markedly changing regional power flows, at an estimated cost of $11.8 billion.
- The Board also approved 445 new network transmission projects, required to enable the reliable delivery of generation seeking to connect to the PJM system, at an estimated cost of $959.1 million.
Continuing Load Growth
The report highlights that load growth continues to increase, driven primarily by the proliferation of data centers, along with the electrification of vehicles and building heating systems and some resurgence in manufacturing. PJM now projects its RTO-wide summer normalized peak to grow 3.1% annually over the next 10 years, which is up 1.5% from its 2024 forecast.
Accelerated Generator Retirements
Accelerated retirements of generators that provide necessary attributes needed to maintain reliability are outpacing the addition of new, mainly inverter-based resources. The retirements are being driven by unit age and environmental public policy. The report notes that:
- PJM received 30 deactivation notifications totaling over 6.5 GW in 2025.
- Approximately 36% of new interconnection requests to the PJM grid are solar resources.
Efforts To Support Reliability
PJM faces an extreme and rapid tightening of supply and demand for capacity resources in the near term and needs additional resources to rapidly address PJM’s near‑term reliability challenges. The report highlights the key planning milestones that PJM achieved in 2025 to support grid reliability, including the progress of PJM’s “first-ready, first‑served” cycle-based study approach for new generators, which is allowing generator projects that are ready to proceed to do so, while incenting those that are not ready to proceed to exit the interconnection process.
Additionally, to mitigate the risk of resource adequacy capacity shortage and energy storage resource decline, PJM’s Board of Managers has directed a number of planning process initiatives intended to enable capacity interconnection more expeditiously:
- Interconnection Process Reform
- Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI)
- Surplus Interconnection Service (SIS)
- Capacity Interconnection Rights (CIRs) Transfer Reforms
These initiatives are part of a broader set of actions that PJM has undertaken to ensure that reliability remains paramount. Read more about PJM’s RTEP process at PJM.com.